The sight, even on our television screens whose daily food is violence and blood- shed, of English soldiers occupying with fixed bayonets the streets of a British city, is...

Young turks in hosiery AUBERON WAUGH It is a commonplace among Conservatives of the duller, more experienced variety to express pious horror (eagerly echoed by commentators on...

The reluctant knight errant MARTIN WALLACE Bellmr—The situation in Northern Ireland has escalated rapidly in recent weeks, and there is still no sign of a lasting solution—...

The other border CRABRO During the past week the eyes of most of us who have taken time off from bucket and spade to scan the newspapers or the television screen have been...

Mr Nixon's welfare revolution WILLIAM JANE WAY When Richard Nixon swore the presiden- tial oath seven months ago, he took over as receiver in bankruptcy for America's frus-...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The RGA—the association of the world wheat exporting countries—is to hold a conference at Brussels to consider the problem of falling prices raised by their...

The pursuit of happiness MARC ULLMANN Paris—Anyone still suffering from the illu- sion that there is little to choose between President Pompidou and his predecessor ought to...

New house of the dead TIBOR SZAMUELY Prisons are news. International com- missions investigate them; teams of report- ers calculate the exact number of political prisoners...

JOHN HOLLOWAY Suddenly, we have news from Pakistan again. The unpredictable disappearance of news items from our papers has long in- trigued me. Some months ago the papers were...

The rainbow's end SIAION RAVEN Once upon a time—our own time—there was a widow woman who lived in a cottage in the middle of a loathsome fen. Her hus- band had died, out of...

Fallen idol BILL GRUNDY A fishing inn on a salmon river in Merion- ethshire, while it has its compensations, isn't perhaps the best place in the world when you're trying to...

Licensing hours GEORGE SCOTT Last week's announcement by the Post- master-General about the future financing of the Bac represented a large victory for the Corporation and, in...

The last of Bloomsbury DENIS BROGAN The death of Leonard Woolf removes the last and, for me, the most attractive of the 'Bloomsberries'. It is quite true, as is sug- gested in...

CHARLES STUART The eighth volume of The Correspondence of Edmund Burke (cup, 160s), bringing the collection up to April 1796 within fifteen months of his death, takes us in...

STUART HOOD The Third Floor Front Sir Hugh Greene (Bodley Head 21s) Sir Hugh Greene has collected in a slim volume a number of papers, lectures and talks written and delivered...

REGINALD MAUDLING, MP Steering the Economy Samuel Brittan (Seeker and Warburg 100s) Mr Brittan's book is an extension of his earlier The Treasury Under the Tories. His earlier...

PATRICK ANDERSON Light on a Dark Horse Roy Campbell (Hollis and Carter 35s) Selected Poetry Roy Campbell (Bodley Head 30s) The late Roy Campbell was a man of violence. He...

Prose and cons BARRY COLE Better Than One William Watson (Barrie and Rockliff/The Cresset Press 21s) By the Waters of Whitechapel Bernard Kops (Bodley Head 30s) Wolf from the...

IAN MacGREGOR University in Revolt: A History of the Columbia Crisis Jerry L. Avorn and others (Macdonald 42s) In one of his short stories Dylan Thomas complains about the...

JO GRIMOND An Orkney Tapestry George Mackay Brown (Gollancz 42s) 'In the northern islands December is a dark month. The lamps are burning when people go to their work. Light...

JOHN HIGGINS Faust is dying. This much is clear from the trappings of mortality, the priest and' the nun, by his side. His passing is lonely: his sole worldly friends, his...

Carry on filming PENELOPE HOUSTON Once Upon a Time in the West (ABC Edgware Road and Fulham Road, 'A') 'I he Bridge at Remagen (Odeon, Leicester Square. 'A') Lye of the Cat...

Great George BRYAN ROBERTSON It is difficult to find words adequate for Stubbs, one of the three undisputed masters of the English school and comparable only to Turner in the...

Giant strides MICHAEL NYMAN The tail of the Viennese symphonic tradi- tion was shaken good and hard at the Proms last week, when Bernard Haitink conducted Bruckner's Ninth and...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT So Mr Crosland has decided to extend the life of the National Film Finance Corpora- tion. He did not say what sort of life it would have—whether it would be...

Sir: Peter J. Smith is mistaken (9 August) in attributing to the antagonists of Dr Jensen unworthy motives. I didn't hear about any man who opposes studies of human heredity on...

Sir: John Sparrow's piece (9 August) is a classic of wilful non-comprehension. It appears to be aimed at two main sectors of the community : students not yet 'converted to...

From Edmund Crispin. Cindy Scott. Dr Israel Shahak, M. M. Carlin, F. Morgan. L. E. W eidberg, William C. Anthony, W. E. Hall, Elka Schrijver, J. R. Morrison, Kevin Fitzgerald....

Sir: Either Bonn is not the place it was or Malcolm Rutherford, who complains that German eggs crack when boiled (16 Aug- has failed to exploit one of its most civilised...

Sir: David Walder writes (26 July) that he 'would hesitate to disagree with Sir Elwyn Jones (the Attorney-General) 'because he is such a nice man'. I suggest that he bring the...

Sir: I'm sorry, but you simply can't win. The very fact that you print a couple of letters (9 August) praising Murray Kemp- ton's article (2 August) impels me to say that I...

Sir: Strix' (Spectator's notebook', 9 August) should always carry a puncture bottle in his car. No wheel changing, no igrubbiness, no sweat. The only way to get rid of 'X' is...

Sir: It is a matter of total indifference to me, and I think to most of my compatriots, whether the skin of an embittered and ignorant bigot is black, pink or coffee- coloured,...

Sir: Could you be so kind as to allow me to use your columns to thank Mr I. E. Oxley for taking up the cudgels in my behoof? (Letters 26 July.) And also to point out that Mr...

Sir: Dear, oh dear. The story Mr Karl Meyer trots out (16 August) about the Roumanian who claimed to the Israeli that be, likewise, was free to abuse Mrs GoIda Meir in public—I...

Sir: Mrs Whitehouse (Letters, 9 August) says that my statement that we have, frequently crossed swords has 'an air of unreality about it' for her, and goes on to 'begin to...

From the 'Spectator'. 21 August 1869—ft is suggested that there is a complete excuse for the conduct of the Duke of Edinburgh which has so irritated the Australians. The Prince...

Flight '69 JOHN WELLS If Venice is like an elderly prostitute, writes Gaye Schopenhauer. the Girl Who's Been Everywhere Once, surrendering to the tour- ist's first timid...

No. 567 : Medical history Set by W. F. N. Watson: The Oedipus Complex, and the story from which it is named, are well known. Competitors are invited to compose an explanatory...

PHILIDOR A. Chicco (1st Prize, L'Italia Scacchistica, 1963). White to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 452 (Savournin): Kt - B 4, threatQ-K...

Across 1 A scintillating bit of advertising for the motor trade, perhaps? (8-4) 9 A progressive character, he formerly lived by hearsay and faith (9) 10 Do, ere change shall...

England BERKSHIRE Eleot Park Country House Hotel Nr. Newbury Kintbury 276 CAMBRIDGESHIRE Garden House Hotel CAMBRIDGE Cambridge 55491 Royal Cambridge Hotel C.kMBRIDGE Cambridge...